A central lesson in the 23rd

From today’s editorials: There’s a lesson especially for soul-searching Republicans in the 23rd Congressional District race’s outcome. People don’t elect politicians who don’t represent them.

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For all the money that national conservative groups poured into the race for the 23rd Congressional District, their candidate lost. That is the undeniable bottom line.

There is a costly lesson here for interlopers who think New Yorkers can be so swayed by a barrage of advertising that they will forget what they personally stand for, and what they want and don’t want in a representative.

It’s a lesson for all of the state’s political parties — perhaps most especially the Republicans, who like their national counterparts are searching for an identity. Here’s a hint from Tuesday: It isn’t way over to their right.

In the final analysis, voters rejected Doug Hoffman’s conservative agenda and chose Democrat Bill Owens’ more progressive one. Moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava, who might have pulled this one out for the GOP, was so battered by both sides that she quit the race and supported Mr. Owens, the first Democrat to win the seat since the Civil War.

If you compare the results of this race with last year’s presidential election, you’ll see there hasn’t been much change. Mr. Hoffman’s percentage was roughly the same as that of Republican John McCain — between 46 and 47 percent — while Mr. Owens and Ms. Scozzafava together pulled about the same share as Democrat Barack Obama did last fall.

In short, all that advertising and support from the conservative Club for Growth, the religiously oriented Family Research Council and a host of other outside anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage and pro-gun groups didn’t make voters think much differently. Those groups could not persuade a majority of voters to believe in a platform that they didn’t endorse, even when Republican Party support shifted to their candidate. That’s generally the same hurdle such ideologues would face anywhere else in this state.

New Yorkers as a whole favor a woman’s right to choose. They’re split down the middle on same-sex marriage and strongly support civil unions. They tend to be more interested in sensible gun control than ensuring that every citizen can pack heat. And they value the separation of church and state.

All that’s worth the attention of New York’s Republican Party, as it sits out of power in state government and wonders how to regain its footing. Some suggest the party cleave more than ever to conservative positions to distinguish itself from Democrats.

But those aren’t the positions of most New Yorkers. If the 23rd Congressional District race proves anything, it’s that politicians can’t force their values on voters.

If the Republican party can get that, it might start coming up with candidates whom voters believe will actually represent them in Albany and Washington.